Ticket-validating device



Patented Dec. 3, 1929 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE REUBEN II. HELSEL, 0F LONG ISLAND CITY, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO AUTOMATIC TICKET REGISTER CORPORATION, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK TICKET-VALIDATING DEVICE My invention relates to a device for cank ceiling or validating tickets as they are issued from a ticket issuing` machine and to thereby distinguish tickets that have passed through the machine in the regular manner from those that have been obtained without being sold or in some other unauthorized manner.

To accomplish such cancelling satisfactorily it is essential that the cancellation take place within the machine or at some period between the drawing of the ticket from a supply magazine and its passage to the severing and delivering point. Cancelling tickets in this fashion to satisfactorily meet requirements involves a number of di'liiculties. For example, ticket issuing` machines are brought almost instant-ly from a position of complete rest to a high speed and then again to a complete rest and this makes it necessary to reduce a minimum inertia of all moving parts. This condition renders impracticable many types of canceling mechanisms and printing devices, which require a number of inking rollers or other high inertia mechanisms. Printing devices are also undesirable because the replenishing of the ink and the maintenance of the inking rollers, require a degree of attention and care that is not available in the operation of these machines. Printing the tickets is also objectionable because the Wet ink, would smear, soil the hands or the glove of the purchaser. Moreover, as the theater entrance may not be well lighted, the printed validating marks might not be readily distinguishable from the other printed mattei' of the ticket, and the door man or ticket taker might not be able to quickly identify the printed validating marks and there would consequently be a tendency to overlook or disregard the absence of such marks.

These obstacles are overcome by my invention, which provides among its objects a canceling device, applicable to various types of ticket issuing machines, to suitably mark or cancel a ticket strip during the passage of the strip through the tic iet issuing machine.

Other objects accomplished by the invention are to provide a ticket canceling means of the type indicated having a very slight inertia, to provide a ticket issuing means that will form a clean impression and that may be readily detected by touch; and to provide a ticket having a series of characteristic validating impressions.

Vith these and other objects in view the invention comprises the method and device and articles described and claimed in the following specification and claims.

Various features of the invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional view, taken on line 1-1 of Fig. 2, of a portion of a ticket issuing machine and a validating device embodying a preferred form of my invention.

Fig. 2 is an end view of a portion of the ticket issuing machine and canceling or validating device,

Fig. 3 is a vertical side view of the portion of the ticket issuing machine and validating device, and

Fig. l is a perspective view of a portion of a. ticket strip showing the validating marks formed thereon.

In my invention a succession of shear marks is made on each length of ticket strip while the strip is being measured and passed from a supply magasine to the point where the measured strips are detached and delivered to the purchaser. As the supply of strip does not have these marks on it, it is not validated, and therefore not receivable as a valid ticket, until it has passed through the ticket issuing machine in the regular course. Accordingly, if ticket strips are obtained in unlawful or unauthorized manner, they may be readily detected by the door man or ticket taker. The ticket strip may be impressed or marked at any peint in. the issuing machine between the supply magazine and the ticket severing and delivering point, but is preferably marked as it passes over a strip engaging and advancing wheel or drum. The validating marks are made by a marker having a minimum inertia, preferably a thin segment or disk positioned to move or rotate in such a relation as to press into the surface of the strip as it passes between the marker and the advancing wheel and to thereby shear the lili) I 'strip slightly at successive intervals. This ich '10, which is marking device is preferably geared to, and in a definite relation to, the advancing wheel and is preferably arranged to rotate and mark each ticket of the strip. A counting device of the usual, or any suitable, type may be provided to count the tickets as they are canceled or validated.

VReferring more particularly to the accompanying drawings, the canceling or validating device is illustrated as applied to a ticket machine of the type shown in my patent #1,435,281 of November 14, 1922. In ticket issuing machines of this type the ticket strip provided with regularly spaced central openings 11, is drawn over a rotating Wheel 12 which is provided with a number of radially projecting pins 13 spaced at intervals equal to the distance between the openings 11 of the ticket strip so as to project through the openings. The wheel 12 is mounted on a shaft 14 supported at one end in a supporting plate l5. When a strip containing the desired number of tickets is to be issued, the wheel 12 is rotated a predetermined distance by mechanism, not shown, which engages a clutch disc 16 rigidly connected with the wheel. In this manner the vticket strip 10 is drawn from a magazine,

passed over the wheel 12 and thence through an. opening 17, where it is severed by a cutter blade 18, and thence through a delivery gate 19. Aworm gear 2O is'mounted on the shaft 14 to rotate with the wheel v12 and from this worm gear a counting mechanism, not shown, maybe driven to count the number of tickets passed through the machine. Rigidly mounted on the shaft 14 adjacent the worm 2O of ythe drivingv and counting mechanism, is a gear wheel 21 for driving the validating device. The gear wheel 21 meshes with a small- Ver pinion 22 .rigidly mounted on a shaft 23 that projects through and is supported on the plate 15. On a projecting end of the shaft 23 there is mounted a flange or segmental disc 24, the outer edge of which intersects vthe peripheral edge of the wheel 12 andis in close contact therewith, so that it may at intervals shearv through the ticket strip as it passes over the wheel 12. The edge of the segmental disc 24 is scalloped, as at 25, to make a number of shortconsecutive shear marks 26, as shown `is cutr in the plate l5 in Fig. 4, 'rather' than one long shear mark. The result is to create a` permanent extrusion so as tobe readily detected by `the ticket taker upon merely passing his thumb and forefinger over the surface of the ticket strip. l VThe gear wheel 21 is made of sheet metal and has the body part largely cut away to leave a number of spokes 27 and thus reduce its'inertia'to a minimum. The spokes 27 are bent outwardly, as at 28, and an opening 29 to provide room for the worm, netjshown, meshing with the gear 20. The 'segmental disc 24-is alsoof diminishing thickness towards its edge, not only to reduce lits inertia, but also to provide a sharp shearmg edge.

It will be apparent from the above description that the validating or canceling mechanism adds a minimum or negligible amount of inert-ia to that of the machine and does not hinder or impede the rapid starting or stopping of the issuing mechanism. T he dcvice also provides validating impressions that may be readily detected without being seen, and ensured against obliteration or smudging of the marks when being handled.

As changes of construction could be made within the scope of my invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having described my invention what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A ticket dispensing device which coma rotating ticket feeding wheel, a shaft, "fe on said shaft having an edge positiene to be brought at intervals into shearing relation to said ticket feeding wheel upon l' e rotation of said shaft, and gears for drivn4 shaft in definite relation to said feeding wheel.

2. A ticket dispensing device which com- A rises a rotating ticket feeding wheel, circumfercntially spaced radial pins on said wheel, a shaft, a flange on said shaft having an edge positioned to be brought at intervals into shearing relation to said ticket feeding wheel upon the rotation of said shaft, a driving gear rotating in fixed position to said ticket feeding wheel, and reducing gearing between said gear wheel and said shaft to cause said sha-ft to rotate said flange into shearing position to said wheel between each consecutive pair of pins.

I In testimony whereof I hereunto ailix my signature.

REUBEN H. HELSEL. 

